Holy Mass in the Holy Year in Honor of the Holy Cross (16 June 1983)

On Thursday, 16 June 1983, the Holy Father celebrated in the Warsaw Cathedral, Mass of the Holy Year in honor of the Holy Cross. In his homily, the Holy Father spoke on the humiliation of Christ in His death on the Cross and His exaltation in the Resurrection.

1. For us Christ became "obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. That is why God exalted Him and gave Him a name that is above every name" ( Verse of the acclamation to the Gospel - Phil . 2, 8 -9).

We read these words again in the solemn moment of the present liturgy, before the Gospel, joining them to the singing of the alleluia.

These words, in Paul's vigorous synthesis, translate what constitutes the mystery of the Redemption wrought by Christ. It constitutes " the humiliation " of the Son of God through the death of the Cross and "the exaltation" through the resurrection. This constitutes obedience to the Father until death and the reciprocal gift of the Father granted in the name of Christ to man and to the entire creation. Redemption is a new creation. Creation was the first and fundamental gift granted by God to the world and to man. Redemption overcomes man's disobedience to the Creator's orders, that is, sin; Christ takes this sin upon himself on the Cross , to open with his obedience to the point of death the new and eternal covenant of God with man: the new range of gifts granted in the Holy Spirit, the new Life.

The Church emerged from the mystery of Redemption and lives by it daily. In this mystery it finds its deepest reason for being. This mystery she announces and proclaims in the Gospel. This mystery she celebrates in the sacraments and above all in the Eucharist.

On March 25, 1983, the Year of Redemption began , as an extraordinary Jubilee of the Church. We wish to highlight in this way — as in 1933 — a particular anniversary of the Redemption: formerly the one thousand ninetieth, and now the one thousand nine hundred and fiftieth.

2. The Church celebrates this extraordinary Jubilee of the Year of Redemption, simultaneously in Rome and throughout the world. I wish then, through this present pilgrimage of mine, to celebrate the Holy Year of Redemption together with my Compatriots, with the Church in Poland . All the liturgical functions carried out by me within the scope of this pilgrimage offer participants the possibility of obtaining the supernatural gifts of the Jubilee: the forgiveness of sins and the remission of temporal punishments, naturally according to the appropriate conditions.

Christ became obedient to the point of death for us, so that we might have Life and have it in abundance (cf. John 10:10). I hope that my pastoral service in my homeland contributes to that "abundance of life" that all men receive from the Father in Jesus Christ, Crucified and Resurrected. May he contribute to that abundance of life, which all men have in Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit . In fact, in his invisible action — the sanctifying action — the salvific "departure" of Christ through death and resurrection continues until the end of the world.

3. Today's Gospel bears witness to that "departure". We heard Jesus cry out in a loud voice: "My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?" ( Mk 15, 34), expressing the unfathomable depth of His saving suffering . We are witnesses of how He "expired" (cf. ibid ., v. 37) on the Cross. We listened, finally; what the women who came to the tomb heard after the Sabbath: "Are you looking for Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified one? He is risen, he is not here. Look at the place where they had deposited Him" ​​( ibid . 16, 6).

Through the words of the Gospel we are intimate with the very center of the events, through which the redemption of the world was accomplished. These events passed into history, and 1950 years separate us from them. But the Redemption of the world remains inexhaustible and always open to man , to every man. In a particular way to those who suffer (and perhaps suffer more, when they cannot understand to the core the meaning of their own suffering and, even more so, the meaning of their own existence).

Let us allow ourselves to be enveloped by the mystery of Redemption! Like that centurion at the Cross , who at the moment of Christ's death confessed: "Truly this man was the Son of God" ( Mk 15, 39). Let us allow ourselves to be enveloped by the mystery of Redemption . We are all under the Cross. All humanity is continually under the Cross. Our Nation has been under the Cross for a thousand years. Let us allow ourselves to be enveloped by the mystery of Redemption: by the mystery of the Son of God! It also reveals to the core what is sometimes so difficult to solve, the mystery of man. And through all his feelings and all his humiliations, His supreme vocation — man's — is manifested.

Together with all my compatriots — especially those who most painfully experience the bitterness of disillusionment, humiliation, suffering, deprivation of freedom, injustice, the vilified dignity of man — I am at the Cross of Christ to celebrate in Polish land the extraordinary Jubilee of the Year of Redemption.

Here I am, and I know that, as once upon Calvary, at the foot of this Cross is the Mother of Christ .

4. The first stage of my pilgrimage to Jasna Góra, on the occasion of the 600th anniversary of the Effigy of the Mother of Christ, brings me to the Warsaw cathedral, to the tomb of the great Primate of the Millennium, Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski .

It was not possible for me to come to Warsaw for his funeral on May 31, 1981, because of the attempt on my life on May 13 , which required a few months of hospitalization.

Today, on the contrary, upon being allowed to come to my homeland, I take my first steps towards his tomb. And here I am, at the altar of Saint John's Cathedral to celebrate the first Holy Mass on Polish land for him. I celebrate it for the soul of the late Cardinal Stefan, but I add to this Most Holy Sacrifice a deep gratitude. I give thanks to Divine Providence because in the difficult period of our history, after the second world war — between the first and second millennium — he gave us this Primate, this Man of God, this lover of the Mother of God of Jasna Góra, this intrepid Servant of the Church and the Fatherland .

Today's liturgy recalls in the first reading the image of the Servant, in which we all recognize the prophetic figure of Christ. The late Cardinal fixed his gaze on Christ as the Servant of our Redemption . With deep emotion he performed the footwashing liturgy on Maundy Thursday in this cathedral, remembering these words of the Master: I did not come to be served, but to serve (cf. Mt 20, 28; Mk 10, 45 ).

And when he was unable to carry out this episcopal ministry, he wrote with regret: "... for the third time now I am experiencing my terrible Holy Thursday... I do not give You to my disciples... My Primate's cathedral today is without its bishop, which the Holy Spirit wanted for the Church... My entire Holy Week is a Garden of Olives — once again...". We find these words in Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski's "Prison Notes" dated March 29, 1956.

5. Today, I wish together with you, dear Brothers and Sisters, with his successor in the primatial See, with the Bishops, the Priests, the male and female Religious Families, and the entire People of God of the Capital and Poland, to thank you for this service providential, for many years offered by Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, Primate of Poland. He served the man and the Nation. He served the Church and the world, serving Christ through Mary. In his service and in his ministry he took as his model the One who — at the moment of the supreme divine election — called herself the servant of the Lord (cf. Lk 1:38). The late Primate made this service and ministry the main strength of his pastoral office. Service made him strong — conscious service of the mission entrusted to him by the Prince of Shepherds. His service made him strong — and with his service as Primate he made the Church and the Nation strong , in the midst of the trials and experiences of history.

Today, together with you, at his tomb, in the heart of Warsaw, I give thanks to the Holy Trinity for this great service, rendered, as Primate, by Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, asking that the fruits of this service continue to endure in the hearts of men in the Fatherland entire.

He drew strength from his faith in God, who is the Lord of creation and the Lord of history through Jesus Christ, crucified and resurrected. Even today, it seems that he addresses us with the words of the Psalmist: "The right hand of the Lord is exalted, the right hand of the Lord works wonders . I will not die, but I will live, to celebrate the works of the Lord" ( Ps . 117/118 , 16-17).

He drew strength from his faith in Christ, that cornerstone of the salvation of man, of humanity, of the Nation. He strove to ensure that this cornerstone was not rejected by the men of our time, but rather was once again consolidated in the foundations of the spiritual construction of contemporary and future generations. Like the Apostle Paul, the late Primate also preached the crucified Christ, who is the power and wisdom of God (cf. 1 Cor. 1, 23.24), in the midst of the world, which seeks in all ages other powers and other wisdom .

In his "Notes" he left us the following prayer: "... all Your ways are justice and truth! Suffering is transformed into recognized love. Punishment ceases to be revenge, because it is a remedy, offered with paternal delicacy. Sadness, which shakes the spirit, is the cultivation of the field before the new sowing. Solitude is a closer look at You. Human resentment is a school of silence and humility. and offering from the heart. The prison cell is a sign of the fact that we do not have a stable home here... So that no one thinks badly of You, Father, so that no one dares to reproach You with excessive severity; for your mercy endures forever" (January 18, 1954).

6. Today we thank the Holy Trinity for this evangelical, Easter heritage of Cardinal Stefan Wyszynski, who was always under the Cross of Christ , together with Mary . "I placed everything in Mary's hands." Under her gaze he felt like the apostle

John, as an adopted son, and as the one in love with the Mother of God, "slave of love". In this unreserved donation he found his own spiritual freedom: yes, he was a free man, and he taught us, his compatriots, true freedom . He was a tireless herald of the dignity of every man and of the good name of Poland among the nations of Europe and the world.

The poet's words could be referred to him:

"I humbly bow to my knees / to stand up as a strong worker of God. / When I stand up, my voice will be the voice of the Lord... / my cry will be the cry of the entire country" (Juliusz Slowacki, " So God help me").

Divine Providence spared him the painful events, which are linked to December 13, 1981. He went to the Father on the solemnity of the Ascension of the Lord, and His funerals were held on the feast of the Visitation of the Most Holy Mary. As if the Lady of Jasna Góra wanted to imprint the last earthly secrecy on the life of this Primate, who, together with the Episcopate of Poland, invited Her to visit all the dioceses and parishes of our Homeland.

As we give thanks to the Holy Trinity for the great service of the Primate of the Millennium, let us ask the King of the ages that nothing destroy this profound foundation, which he was given to establish in the spirit of the People of God in the entire Polish land.

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